CEO Chris Stickles cuts the ribbon at the grand opening of Plant Products’ new Ancaster warehouse with the help of Councillor Lloyd Ferguson (left), GM Gord Jahn (second from right) and Mayor Bob Bratina.

The brutal winter may have left many golf courses in rough shape, but you won’t get any complaints from one of the newest companies to set up shop in the Ancaster Business Park.

“We actually did fairly well this year,” said Gord Jahn, general manager of Plant Products, which supplies grass seed, fertilizers and accessories like flag poles and ball washers to golf courses. The family-owned business, which celebrated the grand opening of its new warehouse on Sandhill Drive, caters to the horticultural industry, also including greenhouses and nurseries among primary customers.

“They fly them in here and then we receive them on a Sunday, and then Monday morning we pack them up to fill various orders from customers,” Jahn said.

“They’re either delivered by our bio-vans or by courier.”

The 4,360-square-metre (47,000-square-foot) warehouse employs 25 people and is certified for storage of agricultural chemicals. It’s one of four owned by the company and replaces a smaller warehouse that closed in Brampton.

Jahn said Plant Products chose Ancaster’s business park because it’s close to major highways, providing easy access the Greater Toronto Area, western Ontario and the Niagara Peninsula.

“This is the proper facility for us to be at,” he said of the warehouse, leased from Wingbury Properties. “We’re pleased to be in the Ancaster community and hopefully we’ll be here for many years.”

Mayor Bob Bratina thanked the company for choosing Ancaster and called the move “another indication of the great success story that Hamilton, Ontario has become.”

He said the city boasts the lowest unemployment rate in the province and ranks near the top of Canadian municipalities when it comes to economic diversity.

“It’s commerce and industry that provides the sustainable living wages that make for a great community, and if you don’t have the disposable income, you’re not going to get all the amenities of a great city,” he said. “We have it. It’s growing.”